faith. And I looked, and behold A PALE horse: and his name that sat on him was DEATH, and hell followed with him.

The monsters who presided over France in the reign of terror, became the victims, in its most appalling form, of that death which followed hard in the wake of infidelity. It were blasphemy to name the death of Christ, even in contrast with a mortal end like theirs. But it may be permitted, in comprehending in a single view the religion of Jesus with all that have opposed it, to cast a glance from the death of the first of Christian martyrs, to that of the apostles of infidelity, whom it first exalted as rulers.

Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and chosen out among men of honest report as an elder of the church of Christ, was taken by certain libertines and others, and brought before the Jewish council. When he was falsely accused, all that sat in the council looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. When he had reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him: And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Acts vi. vii. 54-60.

In changing the scene from Judea to France, and from the first to the close of the eighteenth century,

the spiritual contrast is infinitely greater, and mocks the power of man to measure it.

"None of all the victims of the reign of Terror felt its disabling influence so completely as he the Despot (Robespierre,) who had so long directed its sway.—The Hotel de Ville was surrounded by about fifteen hundred men, and cannon turned upon the doors. The deserted group of Terrorists within conducted themselves like scorpions, which, when surrounded by a circle of fire, are said to turn their stings on each other, and on themselves. Mutual and ferocious upbraiding took place among these miserable men. Wretch, were these the means you promised to furnish? said Payan to Henriot, whom he found intoxicated and incapable of resolution or exertion; and, seizing on him as he spoke, he precipitated the revolutionary general from a window. Henriot survived the fall only to drag himself into a drain, in which he was afterwards discovered and brought out to execution. The younger Robespierre threw himself from the window, but had not the good fortune to perish on the spot. It seemed as if even the melancholy fate of suicide, the last refuge of guilt and despair, was denied to men who had so long refused every species of mercy to their fellow-creatures. Las Basas alone had calmness enough to despatch himself with a pistol shot. Saint Just, after imploring his comrades to kill him, attempted his own life with an irresolute hand, and failed. Couthon lay beneath the table brandishing a knife, with which he repeatedly wounded his bosom, without daring to add force enough to reach his heart. Their chief, Robespierre, in an unsuccessful attempt to shoot himself, had only inflicted a horrible fracture on his under-jaw.

"In this situation they were found like wolves in their lair, foul with blood, mutilated, despairing, and yet not able to die. Robespierre lay on a table in an anti-room, his head supported by a deal box, and his hideous countenance half hidden by a bloody and dirty cloth bound round the shattered chin.

"The captives were carried in triumph to the Convention, who, without admitting them to the bar, ordered them, as outlaws, for instant execution. As the fatal cars passed to the guillotine, those who filled them, but especially Robespierre, were overwhelmed with execrations from the friends and relatives of victims whom he had sent on the same melancholy road. The nature of his previous wound,

from which the cloth had never been removed, till the executioner tore it off, added to the torture of the sufferer. The shattered jaw dropped, and the wretch yelled aloud, to the horror of the spectators. A masque taken from that dreadful head was long exhibited in different nations of Europe, and appalled the spectators by its ugliness, and the mixture of fiendish expression with that of bodily agony."

#

The character of Christianity and of infidelity, may be separately marked in the face of Stephen and in the face of Robespierre. He did not look up stedfastly into heaven; nor did they that looked on him see his face as it had been the face of an angel. It was not for him to say, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit; it was not his last act to kneel down and pray for his enemies; nor could it be said of a death like his, he fell asleep. But the ferocious upbraidings, the attempted suicide, the despairing and yet not being able to die, the hideous countenance, the loud yelling, the fiendish expression, and that dreadful head, of which even the masque appalled the spectators, gave the lie, more than any words, to the inscription on the catacombs, and shewed that the great martyr of infidelity did not face death in the faith that they who had been a terror to the earth, would find rest in hades, or that death would be to them an eternal sleep. The character of infidelity was written in the blood of many thousands, and depicted in the visage of the dying and despairing Robespierre, the first great chief, but not the last, who ruled over infidel France. And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that sat on him was death, and hell followed with him.

And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts (or kingdoms) of the

* Sir Walter Scott's Life of Napoleon, pp. 348–351.

earth. In no other instance does the expressionthe fourth part of the earth, occur. In ancient times, the Roman empire was held as comprising the world. In modern times, to which the prediction refers, the four quarters of the globe is a common expression, and a division of the earth universally known and recognised. Over one of these, or a fourth part of the earth-the republican and imperial armies of France had power. Death still followed with him who headed the irreligious hosts over wide Europe. They killed with the sword, with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts, or as the word is interpreted in scripture, kingdoms of the earth. The ar

mies of Italy, of Holland, of the Confederation of the Rhine, of Spain, of Poland, and of Naples, were rather the slaves than the confederates or allies of the emperor of the French, who created kings, and made subjugated kingdoms his active agents in killing with the sword. But, though here realized to the letter, the warlike achievements of infidel France, and of him who reined it like a steed, will afterward be found more fully and appropriately to pertain to the prophetic civil history of modern times.

The fourth living creature who exhibited infidelity to view, and who, on the opening of the fourth seal, said unto John, come and see, was like a flying eagle. Such was the symbol of infidel France, under the emperor Napoleon; the eagle was the standard of his armies; and his career of conquest, like the flight of an eagle, was best represented by his own and chosen symbol.

The reign of infidelity is not yet passed; and never, perhaps, was there any age in which religion exercised less general influence over the minds of men than the present, and that which has immediately preceded it. The chief end of man has departed from his view. Men mind earthly things with a zeal and fervour, and

to a degree, that might make angels as well as an apostle weep. The world receives the homage of millions. And death, it is to be feared, has not ceased to be the spiritual characteristic of the times. How numerous, or how few, are they who keep the first great commandment of the law, render unto God the glory that is due unto his name, acknowledge him in all their ways, and love the Lord their God with all their heart, and with all their soul, and with all their strength, and with all their mind? Where is pure and undefiled religion-where the godliness becoming the Christian doctrine-where the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace-where the mutual love by which believers would be known of all men-and where are they who seek the things that are Christ's rather than their own? The moral pestilence of infidelity, which bears death to the soul, has spread far and wide— but no sanatory cordon is sought to encircle men around, nor do they wash within and make them clean, by the faith in Jesus and the word of God, which would turn the livid hue into the look of life, and take from the death-plague of the soul all power of hurting. Take heed, brethren, said the apostle, in times and to persons when and to whom the warning was not more needed than now,-take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, whilst it is called to-day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. This at least is not the place, where such a scriptural exhortation should pass unnoticed; and this at least is not the time when the application of the precept should be laid aside to a more convenient season. Natural religion, which so many ape after, is nothing but death to sinful men. It is to Christ, that all who hear the gospel have to come that they may be saved. This is the condemnation, that light hath come into the